Friday, August 1, 2008

How my garden does grow


"...Christopher Robin gave me a mastershalum seed, and I planted it, and I'm going to have mastershalums all over the front door."

"I thought they were called nasturtiums," said Piglet
timidly, as he went on jumping.

"No," said Pooh. "Not these. These are called
mastershalums."
- A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

The nasturtiums were started from seed and have just begun to bloom this week. Beautiful and delicious, they're most likely doomed from the start. I planted them in all hopefulness and have been cheering them on since they poked their tender green heads out of the soil but charmed as I am by the idea of spicy little edible flowers, they're irresistible to insects. I'll taste my first bright blossom tonight.

I'm a lazy gardener. I like to dig little holes, play in the dirt a while and then leave the plants to fight it out with the weeds. Every year, the herbs end up going to seed long before it's time because I love to see things grow into their wildness. The dill, taller than me now, has bright green starburst seedheads that nod in the breeze and the basil's deep glossy leaves whisper promises of fresh pesto.

Summer passes so quickly and I'm always left yearning for flavor.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Must... resist... making obvious... but puerile... jokes about mastershalums....

Weetabix said...

The petals of nasturtiums make a colorful, peppery topping on a salad.

We used to grow them just to eat.

Weetabix said...

Or are they nasturtia?

Anonymous said...

Okay, just because something is edible doesn't mean it's good to eat. It just means it won't kill you.

Right away.

Be careful eating plants. Plants aren't food, plants are what food eats.

Weer'd Beard said...

The blossoms when they first start to open like that are the tastiest!

I can't resist them! I must eat your blog now!

NOM NOM NOM!!

Arrrrr

Anonymous said...

Breda,
I wanted you to know that anyone running explorer cannot get to you. It is a problem with sitemeter. If you are using sitemeter take it off and the problem will be solved. Pass it on........We bloggers need to stick together.
Lucy

Anonymous said...

Lucy;

Au contraire, we need readers to stick together. Get OFF of Internet Explorer!

At least.

Or find the setting that doesn't fail loading a page because one hotlink on it doesn't respond.

I mean: how stupid is that? Something not even a part of the content of the page stops it from loading? In my biz, we call that a Stupid Programmer Trick.

M